2009 Archive : Voices from the Frontlines Radio

The Director of the San Diego-based Just Transition Alliance, just returned from a US grassroots environmental and climate justice delegation to Copenhagen, breaks down why the deal brokered by President Obama in the 11th hour is really no deal at all. What opportunities lie ahead for social movements and government fighting for climate justice?

The co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program and a progressive blogger from Democrats.com break down the dangers of the current health care reform bill, from a $476 billion subsidy to private industry to a mandate that people buy private insurance, and debate strategies for getting the health care reform process back to its original goals.

The Director of Veterans for Peace and a national leader in United for Peace and Justice respond to Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and discuss grassroots and inside-the-beltway strategies for stopping the US war machine.

The Director of Veterans for Peace and a national leader in United for Peace and Justice respond to Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and discuss grassroots and inside-the-beltway strategies for stopping the US war machine.

An attorney and youth organizer from the Dignity in Schools Coalition discusses the National Resolution to End School Pushout being launched this week, and the discipline policies and class conditions that creating crisis of drop out/pushout for low income students of color in urban high schools.

A monumental figure on the US Left reflects with his old friend, host Eric Mann, on a long life in the movement, from Fanny Lou Hamer and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, teaching a Spelman College student named Alice Walker, and the writing and publication of his ground-breaking work A People's History of the United States.

The Indian writer-activist breaks down the grwoing Maoist movement in India, the state of the Indian Left, repression by state security forces, and the controversial multi-national mining project in Orissa

In the wake of the deadly shooting by a military psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Texas, the award-winning independent war reporter discusses the conditions facing GI's in the face of another escalation of the war in Aghanistan and the small but growing GI resistance movement.

One year after the Wall Street meltdown and the biggest corporate bailout in US history, the Director of Americans for Financial Reform and an expert on international finance discuss the causes of the financial crisis and the strategies and proposals for meaningful reform.

The investigative journalist and author of The Chavez Code assesses the US-brokered agreement between President Manuel Zelaya and the coup government in Honduras. Victory for popular forces in Honduras and the Latin American Left or scucessful US imperial manipulation?

The Los Angeles Sentinel columnist and the director of South Asian Network reflect on the appointment of Charlie Beck to replace William Bratton as chief of LAPD. What should communities of color and civil rights activists expect and demand from the new leadership at LAPD?

The LA County Supervisor from South Los Angeles discusses MTA's recently passed Long Range Transportation Plan, what he's done and will do to protect funding for the bus system, and what transit equity in LA looks like over the next 30 years.

Two organizers on the ground in the fight for civil rights in transportatinon break down the challenges and opportunities for transit-dependent low income people and people of color in LA and the Bay Area.

Leading commentators from the Institute for Policy Studies and the
Black Commentator discuss the specific impacts of the economic and
housing crises in the Black community. As unemployment and poverty
rates sore, the foreclosure crisis is being called the largest transfer
wealth out of the hands of Black people in modern US history.

Two Black organizers on the frontlines of housing struggles in New Orleans and Miami discuss the grassroots fight-back by communities of color hard hit by forceclosures, displacement, gentrification and economic hard times.

The reknowned author and columnist traces the thread of the carefully planned and executed Right-wing strategy from the 1971 Powell memo to the current Right-wing anti-Obama, anti-health care upsurge.

Two distinguished commentators on Afghanistan break down the internal dynamics of Afghan politics, the history of US-Afghan relations pre- and post-invasion, political relations between Afghanistan and its neighbors, and the pro-war and anti-war forces in the US.

The biographer and foremost historian on Hubert Harrison discusses Harrison's place within the rich tradition of Black radicalism. What were his intellectual and political contributions to the Black Liberation Movement? What relationship and influence did he have on some of the movement's leading figures, from W.E.B. Dubois to Marcus Garvey to A. Philip Randolph?

One of the best sportswriters in the US raps with Eric host Mann about racism, sexism and the politics of sports--from the controversy around South African track star Caster Semenya, boxers Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson to community organizing guru Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama to Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress. 

A historian and journalist of Latin American politics analyzes the agreement to expand US military presence in Colombia. What does this mean for Colombia politics and society, for the War on Drugs, the War on Terror and for left-leaning governments in neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela. 

A Los Angeles-based high school teacher and organizer and a Chicago-based organizer and hip hop artist break down how the failure of inner-city public schools has set the stage for privatization and take-over by corporate-driven charter management organizations, and what working class communities of color are doing to fight back.

Two longtime writer-activists in the labor movement discuss internal strife inside the Change to Win Federation and the AFL-CIO, the challenges of the new organizing models and passing new federal legislation--the Employee Free Choice Act--and the future of the labor movement. 

A leading economist in the health care policy world and a leader of the nurses' union break down the health care reform proposal in Congress, the significance of the "Public Option", and why the current health care system is broken.

In the wake of another prisoner uprising at a state prison in Chino, two longtime advocates for the rights of prisoners and their families break down last week's federal court ruling ordering the release of 40,000 prisoners to address overcrowding and inhumane conditions inside state prisons.

Korea Policy Institute Director and a leader in South Korea's Alliance of Progressive Movements discuss the significance of Bill Clinton's recent visit to North Korea in the context of US relations with the Korean peninsula.